This tuesday , 28th october , was "diwali" .... the festival of lights ... being majority populated by hindus , diwali is major festival of india and is celebrated all over it with joy ... well , like almost all festival, this festival too has ancient roots joined with religion ...

But for me , its just festival of lights and i simply love its celebration ... not as hindu or as an indian ... i bet , if anyone around the world has ever visited india at diwali , surely they would have loved it ... and perhaps its true for all festivals , like ... holi or navaratri for example ... when i was kid, we used to say , we indians don't feel good if we don't have anything to celebrated at least once in a week ... and its almost true that we always have celebrations ...( ah .. old days ... i miss them ... :( ) ...




We follow lunar calander , and hence all festivals are calculated based on moon phase ... we celebrated diwali for 5 days ... the first day is "dhan teras" ... its 13 phase of moon, on that day we pray deity of "dhan" .. Money ... thats goddess lakhami ... we pray her to not to leave us !! ( ha.. it sounds funny ... but in real life , i guess we all do that every day .. right ?? ) and to drive away evil spirits.

The next day is "kali chaudas" , 14th phase day of moon... the day of evil spirits ... when i was kid , my mom used to force me to stay at home at night at that day , because it is believed that on this day evil spirits are on their maximum power. People who pray goddess of black magic and evil spirit "kali" , do special religious ceremony on this day ...

Diwali is the third day , and its no moon day , that we call "amavasya" ... this is also last day of one of the old indian calander , "vikram samvat" ... ( btw, vikram was name of the king who was said to be one of his kind .. ahh ... its another story to tell you guys ) ... so this is very special day for us ... we lit "diyas" everywhere ... actually "diyas" are symbolic presentation of light , which represents meaning that by lighting "diyas" we are trying to drive away darkness that is surrounding us in our life !!!

Next , fourth day is ... any guess ????? ........ ya .. its "new year" ..... my most fav. day of the year perhaps .... this is the day when celebration is at peak i guess ... families go out to meet relatives , and that relatives too come again to meet them !!! , we have already made special snacks and sweets for this days ... actually these snacks are not made other then for diwali so .. when i was kid .. i used to eat them lots because, we never get chance to eat them again till next year !!! ( sometimes .. i hate traditions ... ) ... another good thing was , as a sign of good blessings elders give $$$ to younger ones .. ( now you know why i liked this day ?? ) ...

The last and fifth day is "Bhai beej" ... well this day is also celebrated in special way ... actually this day is for brothers and sisters ... at this day , sisters invite their brother/s for special meal ... and in return brother give gifts to sister !!



Overall , it is perhaps the best time of my life .. i enjoy typical indian traditions for 5 days at every moment ... we make traditional dishes of celebration ( though some are now available though out the year ) ... at india some people make a colored design "rangoli" near their entrance of their home , which is basically a free hand design made from color powder and chalk .. to keep evil spirits away ... we lit our house with lights and diyas ... visit temple on new year day ... but as said by someone ... when you're in rome , do as romans do ... so living at usa , its never so fun to celebrate that i had at india ... but still i try to "feel" that i used to feel at india ....


always love your traditions ...

I don't think that angels are some kind of spirits ... but they are real people just like us , they are someone who makes us feel happy ... someone who makes us feel full of life ... someone that brings smile on our face ... someone that ease our pain at bad times ... that's what i think an angel is.


you know ... I can see two angles always near me ... they make me smile when ever i talk to them !!! ... and i tried to catch them on my mobile's cam in action !!!


Haaa ... You are right , they are just a kids !!! But you know , kids are the angels that brings joy to our life ... don't you think so ?? well, they are my nephew (2.5 year ) and niece (2 months) ... they are so cute .... ain't they ??? .. ow in the last pic , someone "caught" me playing with my angels ... hehehe ...














Yes , i believe that kids are angels .. its because as a kid they are so pure by heart , they don't judge people from their intelligence , or richness or power ... their measure is love , more you love 'em more they make your life pleasant ... they are messenger of happiness , the finest creation of men and women , a gift of god ...

I am , lucky to have angels near me !!!

Yesterday , i came across about 3 month old page of BBC ... actually it was picture gallery ... title was .. Ethiopia's impending famine ... i am placing some of the snapshots here ... just take a look at them ... i guess, it takes courage to even take photos like this ...





When i see so much pain and suffering in people of this world , it always makes me think ... " Are they from our Earth ?? " ... because here places around me all i see , is a whole materialistic world ... people hungry for power , money and position !!! Mostly they don't think or even care for others ... well it includes me ... its so easy to write all this things lying on cozy bed and having all comforts of life that makes my life easy ... It amazes me that , we all know one bitter truth that at one day we will standing in front of " the One " , the god for some people ... and at that day , we may not be able to answer his question that , have you ever done anything for others ?? ...





you know , i always worry for my weight ( coz , i am getting overweighted !!! ... ) but when i see these people , i feel shame for my self ... i feel like i have stolen their share of food !!! I wish i can help people like them all around the world ... i wish i can make this world a better place to live for every one ... i am not any kind of activist , i even don't have courage to leave everyone and just run to help people ... but i DO KNOW that , i will try my best what i can ...

Bless 'Em

Now a days it seems like everybody are into business of solar cells and just want to make $$$ out of it !!! ... yesterday i was browsing internet , and i came across this site ... they are selling Solar Messenger Bags !! ...





This bag is having solar panel mounted on it so it generates power even when you are walking around !! ... it was nearly 200$ !! compared to an avg. good looking messenger bag from circuit city or staples or even macy's about 30-40$ ... well , this is what they say for their bag ...

"The front flap features a light-weight, flexible, integrated solar charging module which can be utilized by using a common 12V automotive charging adapter made specifically for the brand and type of personal electronics you own. Using a cell phone as an example, you can trickle charge the cell phone battery during casual commutes to work or on campus. This solar panel is not designed to charge a laptop computer."

so ... if have nothing to do or your mobile is out of power , then you can charge your mobile by walking around in campus .... say for couple of hours !!! ... so i guess this bag is nothing but a fancy junk ... right ??

I am not saying that solar cells have no hope .. infact , i would like to use them for my house ... but for this bag ... i would rather buy psp ...

may the force be with us ...

Ahh ... couple of weeks ago i saw a movie , Journey to the center of the earth ... in which they picturized theory to travel to the center of the earth via volcano tubes !!! Well , its not whole ridiculous idea ... may be you don't know , but Nazis too believed that " Hollow Earth " concept and firmly believed that there is hidden world beneath the world on the surface of the earth !!! Even some peoples claim that , Hitler didn't killed him self , the guy that Allied forces found was dummy of him and he was successfully able to escape to that hidden world ... ( ahh ... paranoids ... they even can see him walking at the time square !!! ) ...

Actually the journey that i am talking about doesn't lead to the center of earth ... ( gasp , i wish it could lead me there so i can skip my classes for a while or i can give good excuse to my professor for submitting my project report late .... ) ... it was just a tiny tunnel that i always need to pass near exit 59 of route 15 ... When i got new license and took car by my self for the first time to my school ... i was a bit of scared ... i thought i will be suffocated to death in this tunnel ... actually it remind me one old movie of Sylvester "rocky" Stallone .... " day light " , in which they showed how he rescues people from massive accident in a busy tunnel !!! ( that movie was super flop though ) ... i thought its gonna be my end ... coz this tunnel was not even big like that shown in that movie .. damn ... But after couple of times i passed thought that tunnel now i am comfortable with it ... they call it .. "Heroes' tunnel" ... ( don't ask me why ... ) ...


The tunnel from far ...



I am indside !!





During maintenance work in tunnel , they closed one entrance and diverted both incoming and outgoing traffic through only one line !!! ... ( Do i need to say , because of that i got stuck near half an hour at night of 10 pm ?? )






May the force be with us ....

Heyyyyy ... sori for being absent for long time ....i think , being social ... means lots of waste of time , and worst thing is we can't escape from people !!! anyways ... this time i am gonna blurp about alternative sources of energy ...

The sources of energy are divided in to two parts , renewable energy source and non-renewable energy source ... former one means , energy source which can be generated/retrieved after very short period of time , for example ... wind / water ... etc .. and later one means , energy source which can not be generated in short period of time , it can take millions of million years to get it again ... for example , coal / fossil fuels ...

Now like we know , these non-renewable fuels are making our earth the worst place to live , more over they are not gonna last for ever right ?? But these non-renewable sources are gonna be here for ever !!!! ... i mean , can you believe that , after couple of years we will not be having air ?? or water ?? or sun ?????? no .. right ?? ... so,in short they will be here till earth it self doesn't get explode in space ....... ( not yet the time for ,intergalactic travel for star wars lovers ... sigh sigh ?? )

In recent years , people really got aware about environment and clean energy .... researches are carried out worldwide and even governments are also getting involved in these researches ... and patriotism plays one of the driving factor !!! .... yup , many countries in this world want to get free from the clutches of OPEAC , and make their economy an " oil-free" economy ... because " oil " itself takes a bigger portion of national budget ... and European countries seem to be more serious about it then rest of the world !!!

We have plenty of renewable energy sources available for example ... WIND ...

Wind is used to drive wind mills , which runs wind turbines to produce electricity ... but major problem is , we can't place wind mill at our home right ?? for that we need plenty of open space .. ( this place is called "wind farm" ) .. and sufficient wind flow ... but main advantage is , its green energy ... means not a bit of pollution , no risk of any kind of hazard or side effects to humans !!!




here is screenshot of off shore wind farm at Delaware ...







another example is ... Water ...

Well, actually water has been used to produce electricity from many decades and it has proven to be the best source of clean energy ... but this sort of hydro electric plant requires massive space to store water ... a space to make reservoir ... and its the only problem ... and again advantages ?? ... same .. clean green energy ...


guess the name ?? ........... yaa.. its hoover dam !!!



another example is ... to use Power of Tides !!!

I bet most of us have never thought tide can be used to generate power !!! well , it is very true that some countries , having great seacoast are working to figure out to put this idea in a working plant ... for example ... france and russia !!! ... its a bit of same technology they use in panama canal to move ships !!!





the energy in which i am interest the most ....from SUN !!!

Sun .... it is vital part of civilizations from ancient times , sun is considered as an almighty god , weather its , Mayans or Egyptians or Indian or Roman civilization ... it gives life to every living thing on earth ... and perhaps the most researched field of alternative energy is solar cells .... Solar cells were originally developed for space expedition space crafts , because it is the only " known " form of energy to us in space ... ( others are still under research , like "dark matter " ) ... and now a days we have seen very good examples successful use of Solar Cells to produce electricity that can be used commercially !!! .... some countries like Germany are very aggressive for this technology development and implementation ...




And , as an engineer i see very bright future for this technology compared to any other alternative energy ... its mainly because it is relatively cheaper and easy to install ... yaaa ... we can't install wind mill at our rooftop .. but in case of solar cell , its possible to install sufficient number of panels to feed whole house ... and if more , then ... can even sell back produced power !!! ... also many states of USA , provides loan and subsidies for this kind of installations and many electric companies provide " net-metering " feature .... so i can say it has good future !!!


Another source is ... a bit of tale from science fiction ... energy from fuel cell !!!

Bacially in fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen are used to produce electricity with help of special membrane ... ( ... i really liked that study in my class of alternative energy sources ) ... Just like solar cells , fuel cells were too developed initially for space crafts , but during last decade , there were attempts to make them work for our personal use too !!! we have even seen cars running from fuel cells from Honda, GM and Toyota !!! state like OHIO has invested lots of $$$$ for fuel cell companies and they even have one plant working at present !!!! and like all other alternative energy ... is clean green .. and by product is ???... just a steam of water !!!





Hmm ... i think this much information is enough for basic ... i just wanted to show you guys how we can change our world and make is world a more good place for coming generations !!!

May the force be with us ...